Sunday October 19, 2008
Charming Cate
Stories by SANDRA LOW
We’ve seen Cate Blanchett play everything from a queen to an elf, and even a man. But what’s she like without the makeup and cameras?
THE thought of interviewing someone who made it on to Time magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World 2007 is a little intimidating.
Adding to the nerves, my mind sees images of the majestic Queen Elizabeth, ethereal Galadriel, spunky Katharine Hepburn, and severe Colonel Dr Irina Spalko as I look into Cate Blanchett’s steely blue eyes.
A 2003 file photo of Blanchett with husband Andrew Upton. Among the hundreds of photos of her we have in our database since then, there isn’t a single family shot –a which is exactly what the publicity shy actress wants. I am grateful that her warm smile and hands snaps me out of my slightly hypnotic state, but I fight to rein in my excitement, for it is certainly a privilege to interview an actress who has embraced such diversity in film roles and made them memorable for us.
Born Catherine Elise Blanchett to an American father and an Australian mother in 1969, Blanchett graduated from Australia’s renowned National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1992 and began her career in the theatre.
“When I decided to go to theatre school, I know my mother’s heart sank. She thought that I was going to have such a difficult life. It is so full of rejection, you are constantly striving, and so few people find work. It can be brutal but it’s also been such a privilege for me to do such extraordinary things in my life,” Blanchett says, after we settle down in the suite at The Westin Miyako Kyoto in the lovely city of Kyoto, Japan.
Blanchett recalls that when she was young she wanted to be a movie director and explains, “I was really good at bossing people around and telling people exactly what to do. In fact, I didn’t think about the movie business (in terms of acting) at all.”
For someone who “didn’t think” about acting, her achievements and awards are pretty amazing not to mention too extensive to list and too impressive to summarise; one highlight, however, must surely be her universally praised role as Queen Elizabeth I in Shekhar Kapur’s critically acclaimed Elizabeth, for which she won a Golden Globe Award as Best Actress in 1998.
And then, in 2004, there was her role as iconic Hollywood glamour queen Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator; Blanchett’s plausible portrayal of Hepburn in her prime won the Aussie actress an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
She easily picked up another Golden Globe Award in 2007 as Best Supporting Actress for her brilliant portrayal of Bob Dylan in the quirky biopic of sorts, I’m Not There (yes, she played a young Dylan, and without any camp, either).
In the same year, she reprised her role as Queen Elizabeth I in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth: The Golden Age, for which she received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations as Best Actress.
Cate Blanchett looking oh-so-chic in a Kenzo kimono dress with Christian Louboutin shoes, in Kobe, Japan. – Photo by STEVEN CHEE Constantly evolving
For as long as Blanchett has made her presence felt in Hollywood, it is her talent not her looks that has been praised.
However, in person, the 1.7m-tall Blanchett, who is clad in an electric blue Yohji Yamamoto leather coatdress and a pair of Roger Vivier shoes at the interview, is simply stunning.
Her layered soft blonde hair frames a face that you can’t take your eyes off. She has cheekbones worthy of playing royalty and skin so pale and luminous that it was surely partly responsible for the wonderfully unearthly quality of the royal elf Galadriel in The Lord of The Rings trilogy.
With her impressive portfolio of character roles, it is unlikely that Blanchett would succumb to the pressure that Hollywood inflicts upon actresses to look young and beautiful all the time €“ especially when she has such a grounded attitude about Hollywood.
“Honestly, Hollywood is a mind set as much as it is a location. I’m Australian and, being trained in theatre, those sorts of concerns seem very vacuous to me €“ I wonder why people spend all their lives trying to look like everybody else!
“In fact, the actors that I look up to are those who have an unusual approach and have something different to offer,” she says.
Blanchett believes that the pressure is real but she has not succumbed to it, and she pointed out that it is not exclusive to women, as the pressure affects men as well; neither is it restricted to the acting industry.
“That is why it is fantastic to come on a journey to Japan. It is a country that has evolved so much, and there is a really deep respect for ancient traditions that are all about patience and humility, and the notion of a perfection that you never achieve. It’s always a journey towards it, a lifelong process,” she muses.
When Blanchett is reminded that she has a reputation as a gifted actress who can do anything and that she is one of the most successful actresses around, her eyes widen and she modestly exclaims, “Oh dear … am I?”
Then she quickly offers, “I love what I do. The fact that I have worked with directors like Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, and so many more is remarkable to me, and I sometimes have to pinch myself.”
She points out that she has been incredibly fortunate that directors have asked her to do such diverse things as an actress, and she explains, “Maybe it’s because I have been trained in theatre that I am interested in having a long career. I don’t need my name in bright lights as I just want to keep working and to keep evolving.”
Blanchett realized that after having worked on the role of Queen Elizabeth, people were expecting her to do the same thing.
“I kept getting scripts about lonely old queens, and set in various periods in history and in different countries!,” she laughs.
After an impressive performance as the 16th century Queen Elizabeth I, Blanchett wanted to play a really small role. When she received a script to play John Cusack’s unassuming better half in Pushing Tin (1999), she jumped at it.
In the rather overlooked little gem of a movie, the chameleonic Blanchett adopted an impeccable New York accent and seemed to have a completely different body than the one she had in Elizabeth!
It may have been tiny role but it won her rave reviews from CNN, The New York Times, and USA Today, to name just a few.
The role was a complete contrast to what she had been doing, which was a clever move as after that she avoided being typecast in a particular role.
More than a pretty face
Without pausing Blanchett says she thinks that’s why she connected with the Ikebana workshop in Kyoto: “It’s what you leave out that makes something beautiful as much as what you put in. In my profession it is what you say ‘no’ to as much as what you say ‘yes’ to that matters,” she muses.
Blanchett was in Japan to fulfill her duties as one of the brand ambassadors for luxury Japanese skincare brand SK-II (see Caring for Cate’s skin opposite).
Aside from being the face of SK-II, Blanchett also said “yes” to being the ambassador for the Australian Conservation Foundation in 2007, urging Australians to express their concerns about climate change.
They launched an interactive website called whoonearthcares.com, where Australians can locate themselves on the map and then make pledges to reduce their carbon footprint. As they plug the information in, they will see the equivalents of a certain number of cars being taken off the road.
Blanchett says, “I think it is a potent way of telling people that the simple things in their everyday life can make a difference.
“Because once you politicise the population about making those changes, then they can put pressure on their political leaders to put more pressure on industries. Ultimately, it is consumers who shift the change.”
Early this year, Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister of Australia, announced that 11 leading Australians will form the Independent Steering Committee for the Australia 2020 Summit that will discuss various issues of national concern; her dedicated involvement in theatre in Australia saw Blanchett being named as a panel member to lead discussions towards a creative Australia.
An extraordinary privilege
When our conversation shifts to her children, her icy blue eyes soften and warm to the topic.
“I think I have become a better actress since having children. In retrospect, all the time I spent preparing for a role was filled with anxiety. With children in my life there is no time to prepare, and you have to be in the moment when you are there.
“I have a greater sense of flow with my work now,” she adds.
As an actress, Blanchett says, “Being around children is fantastic because they are so uninhibited and they have such an organic sense of play. That’s what we try even as an adult, you have to have a sense of never having grown up.”
Her fans may look at her in awe, but Blanchett feels the same way when she looks at the diverse experiences in her life today €“ she washes her son’s dirty underwear, runs a company with her husband, is flown to Japan to experience an Ikebana lesson with the grandmaster of Ikebana because of her association with SK-II, and it is all, she says, such an extraordinary privilege. Yes, even the dirty underwear....
Keeping herself grounded seems to be what Blanchett firmly believes in as she says, “I’ve worked at such a frenetic pace in the film industry for the last seven years and I don’t want to keep it up. I think it would be a form of cannibalism.”
In 2006, Blanchett and her husband, playwright and screenwriter Andrew Upton, were named co-artistic directors of the renowned Sydney Theatre Company; they’ve just launched their first season.
“We are job sharing, and this allows us to pursue our individual work, and if a film fits into the slot and the children can leave school, then I would take that slot out.”
Blanchett says that since having children she has not really been away from them, and points out, “On this trip to Japan my baby boy is with me while my two boys are with my husband. In fact, this is the longest that I have ever been away from them.
“My work has to change as I don’t want someone else bringing my children up, otherwise why have children? If that means turning down films because they are in school then that’s what I will need to do.”
With motherhood being Blanchett‘s favourite role these days, she says, increasingly, the key factor that would make her accept a film role would be the director.
Speaking like the Academy Award-worthy actress that she is, she adds, “Also, the chance to feel that I am risking failure. I can’t stand the feeling but I must like it. I must have no idea how to do a role, because if I don’t have that feeling, then it feels safe. Frequently, I fall on my face and fail, and its very public but who cares. You just have to keep doing it.”
It seems that we can count on Blanchett to say “yes” to impossible acting challenges €“ and that is precisely what we want her to continue doing because it is a constant wonder to watch her work.
Of babies, beauty, and Botox
I AM inspired by: “My children! When we have children it is the ultimate expression of hope, especially when we wonder how we are going to survive as a species on this planet today.
Balancing babies and beauty: “With three kids I don’t do a lot of things for myself. I try to exercise but I don’t. I’ve been known to make the children’s lunches with an SK-II Facial Treatment Mask on, and the kids just roll their eyes! I also use the mask during a flight, but only after the lights go down!
When I am having a bad day: “I tell myself that I am lucky that at the end of the day when I fall in bed, my husband will say ‘Who cares?’. But, you know when everything is going to hell in a handbag, and you wake up in the morning, and these little creatures climb into your bed and they smell so beautiful €“ it’s absolutely priceless.”
The secret to beautiful skin: “Relax, don’t worry, fall in love, drink lots of water and use the Facial Treatment Essence.”
What do you say to women who don’t feel they are beautiful? “That’s me! Growing up I wasn’t the gorgeous girl. I think it builds character.”
What do you think about “non-invasive surgery” like Botox treatments? “I’m not going to sit here and tell people what to do, but, personally, I find that no one yet knows what are the side effects of something like Botox in 20 to 30 years.
“When I do see people who have altered their faces, where all traces of their character are removed, all I see left behind is the mask they have created, which is panic. You can’t make any clear decisions when you panic.”
What do you think beauty is all about? “That is the question, isn’t it? It simply can’t be about the surface. Beauty is multi-layered and timeless, and in the end only time will tell what is beautiful.”
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